In the toy industry, there are many occasions where it is highly desirable for an object to incorporate electronics which enhance that object's functionality, for example, by making sounds, turning on lights or moving the object's movable elements. Adding such functionality to a toy, however, adds significant cost, sometimes to the extent that of making such a toy not commercially viable.
It is known that physical objects may be encoded in some way, for example, by mechanical, electronic, optical, other means or a combination thereof, to cause one or more sound messages relating to that item to be generated when the encoded object is placed in contact with or near a means for reading the code. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,648,753, 4,348,191, 5,314,436, 4,729,564, 3,343,281, 4,392,053, 4,820,233, 5,607,336, and 4,923,428. Such devices are also known to be quite costly and, therefore, not commercially viable in the toy industry.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a simple inexpensive object, such as a toy, with a means for generating sounds, signals and/or movements appropriate to the objects identity or environment without the need for expensive electronic components being incorporated into the object.